What's best start to a season you've seen?

The Bulls appeared vulnerable in the fall of 1995. Michael Jordan's return from his first retirement and baseball experiment in the spring had led to uneven moments, including a second-round playoff exit to the Magic.

Then the 1995-96 season started. And the Bulls won their first five games, 10 of their first 11, 23 of their first 26 and on and on and on. In fact, after dropping to 23-3, the Bulls reeled off a franchise-record, 18-game win streak to move to 41-3. In the end, the Bulls set several franchise and NBA records, including a 72-10 regular season. .

That they capped the historic season with the franchise's fourth NBA championship felt like a foregone conclusion.

I'm a huge hockey fan who watched the Blackhawks rally on Sunday to extend their streak, but while what the Blackhawks are doing after the NHL lockout is pretty ridiculous, nothing can touch what the Patriots did in 2007.

Tom Brady and the Patriots didn't just start that regular season on a roll, they finished it on one, too, piling up points while posting the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history. They won their first two playoff games for 18 straight wins, but their perfect season was thwarted by Eli Manning and the Giants in the Super Bowl.

For that, the Patriots continue to be a punch line, but we may never see an NFL team run the table in the regular season again.

In 1995-96, the Bulls won a record 72 games on their way to the franchise's fourth NBA championship. The team was led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. It shattered the previous mark of 69 wins set by the 1971-72 Lakers.

The Bulls opened the season with a 41-3 record, with the three loses — Orlando, Seattle and Indiana — by a margin of less than six points per game. During that opening stretch, the team had two impressive win streaks spanning 13 games and 18 games. The final streak included a perfect 14-0 mark in the month of January.

The Bulls also went an impressive 22-0 at the United Center before finishing the season 34-2 at home.

With all due respect to my colleagues' choices of the 1995-96 Bulls, that team had Michael Jordan and the Blackhawks don't have an equivalent. Yes, Captain Serious — Jonathan Toews — has provided his share of heroics. So have Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane. But the Hawks' success has been a true team effort. Goaltenders Corey Crawford and Ray Emery have each lifted their games a notch, and the team's penalty killing has ranked among the NHL's best..

The Hawks are doing all of this in a compressed, tougher schedule because of the lockout — and they're facing only Western foes. That means they're beating the best of the best.